What the punk; – Psychological emergence, Subculture and Metapoliteusis
Special Research Topic
– This is a student project –
The research topic concerns the non-traditional ways of approaching existence in the city and using creativity in order to cope with panic that derives from the metropolis, as these were expressed through the punk subculture in early 80’s Greece during the “Metapoliteusis”(time of drastic political changes towards democracy). The main issue is accompanied with an appendix which is a collection of punk printed material (posters, cds, vinyls, tapes) from the year 1982 and on.
Abstract
Punk subculture wasn't created to confront a difficult situation, so that it can become a part of it, but to destroy and dispel the status quo. The attributed aggression coming from a subject though, doesn't refer to a political group or organisation or whatever this could mean in such a way-which is accompanied by such actions. It was used in terms of producing culture starting from music, moving to appearance and finally to the production of posters, zines, etc. A set of elements that create a raw, violent and shocking image in more than one level. At this point punk elements may have been fragmented and distributed thanks to marketing-so that they consist an every day image for the majority- but for Greece in the 80's the were a source of fear and moral panic. We are referring to Greece during the “Metapoliteusis”(greek transition to democracy), the political changes, Greece that “belongs to the West” and “belongs to greeks”, that had conservative leftovers even though it was trying to dissolve the authoritarian past, and meanwhile the center of Athens was beginning to acquire a threatening essence and was leading to isolation. This was an ideal ground for the development of trauma stress, in the metropolis field especially, which affects every aspect of everyday life. These non-traditional ways of addressing existence in the city, in order to confront this traumatic situation, are the ones that create the subculture and in the same moment make it a target of society, which forgets to remember that it is its own creation. The disobedience, rampage, relief and blast become creativity, they obtain their own system of symbolism and visualization, they destroy the smooth flow of the city and “terrorize”.
Collaborator: Chatzigrigoriou Panagiotis
